Outside Your Door
by kawaii-kakashi
Summary: On this particular day Sai had been a member of Team 7 for five years! Sakura and Naruto had bought a gift but the most unpredictable ninja was nowhere to be found, and she didn't have all day. Where could Naruto be? Her search leads her to Kakashis kitchen where she finds out more than she had bargained for. Kakanaru oneshot, Sakuras POV.


**A/N: **It started with me wanting to write about Kakashi and Narutos relationship from someone else's point of view, and then I came up with the scene with Sai and things kind of escalated. Oh well.

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**Outside your door**

Sakura was out of options. She'd looked everywhere, and Naruto was nowhere to be found. She'd checked all the usual places he might be, first his place then Ichiraku, then the academy, the training grounds (you never knew, he might have hit his head or something), and after all that, she wasn't sure of what to do. The sun was rising higher in the sky and the time was running out.

Had Naruto forgotten about their plans for the day? And more importantly, where the hell was he? No one she had talked to had seen him since the evening before, when he'd come back from a mission in the neighboring village. Today was the five year anniversary of when Sai first joined team seven and he was going on a mission around lunchtime. Sakura had bought a gift but wanted Naruto to deliver it with her.

Farther away she noticed Shikamaru carrying a lot of scrolls and she hurried over, both to help and to ask him if he'd seen Naruto. Shikamaru shrugged at her question but then stopped to think, furrowing his brows slightly, as if it was an inconvenience but he complied anyway.

"Check with Kakashi or something. He should know."

Sakura lit up and smiled at him. "Of course, thank you! I wish I'd thought of that sooner."

A smile pulled a little on Shikamarus lips, he'd never been fond of grand displays of emotion.

"No problem. See you."

"Yeah, bye."

Sakura watched his back as he walked off, the scrolls sticking out from his silhouette like the branches from an especially disordered tree. She racked her brain as to where Kakashi lived. She had a faint memory of checking up on him a while ago, as he'd returned from the hospital...She remembered where it was, realized that it wasn't far from where she was and walked faster. Hopefully Kakashi knew where he'd gone.

She walked quickly up the stairs by the cozy looking apartment complex. He lived on the upper floor and as soon as she reached it she knocked hard on the door. She knew too well just how lazy he was when it came to getting up in the morning, had heard Tsunades angry rant more than enough times. Of course she liked her former sensei and she tried not to listen too close as her current tutor cursed his lethargic demeanor but parts of it must have stuck with her because she could hear the reprimands ringing in her head. _He is absolutely uninterested in __**everything**__!_

She rapped on the door again and soon after she heard someone moving behind it. _Finally. _He opened and, just as she'd suspected, he'd come straight out of bed.

"Good morning," she said, a little shyly.

Despite having been taught by him for quite a few years it was still a little awkward to meet him outside missions. Not that he was in any way scary, but his figure unwittingly demanded respect...though maybe not right now. His hair was a mess (bed head! She thought before almost slapping a hand across her face.), he was wearing striped pajama pants that clearly had seen better days and a black undershirt that covered his arms and, not surprisingly, his nose and mouth.

"I'm sorry for waking you," she added.

"No worries, I should get up anyway."

_Yes. Yes you should. It's 10 am! _

He looked a expectantly at her, assuming this wasn't a social visit. She got to the point.

"I wondered if you had seen Naruto recently..." her voice trailed off, at a loss for words for how vague it sounded.

He didn't seem to notice, rubbed his good eye with the back of his hand.

"Yeah, sure I have." He covered his mouth, yawned wide.

Relieved by his answer she continued,

"We were supposed to give Sai a gift, today he's been in team seven for five years, and he's going away on a mission so we had to do it before lunch and Naruto promised to meet me an hour ago. He didn't show up and I have no idea where he is."

"Ah, I see. Come on in."

A little surprised, she followed him down the hall after first taking off her shoes. She assumed he'd go get something, like a map or a magic way of getting in touch with him (her imagination had been slacking off lately). He gestured towards a rickety chair by the table and she sat down.

"Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?"

She shook her head politely. "No thank you."

From his behavior it seemed like it could take a while, whatever he was doing. Without further ado he opened the bedroom door, which had been shut almost completely and leaned in.

"Yo, Naruto. Sakura's here."

The first thought that popped into her head was that she was glad she wasn't drinking that coffee otherwise she would've choked on it.

_Naruto-... bedroom- what!? _

She frantically looked for another explanation, for there must be one, surely, other than that-

Maybe he was just...borrowing his bed?

Yes. That was it.

She heard his groggy answer, could imagine him all sleepy with tousled hair, tired … in bed... he sure sounded exhausted...

"Weren't you going to meet Sai soon?" Kakashi insisted.

Silence.

"Dammit!"

She could hear him almost falling out of the bed in his hurry to get up. Kakashi sauntered to the bathroom and soon after she heard the shower running. Good thing there was no one in the kitchen because she still fought the urge to gape.

_Naruto and Kakashi-sensei?! _

Sure, she'd been gone for a while, but when the hell had _that_ happened? She didn't get anymore time to think about it since Naruto barged out through the door, fully dressed, though his hair was still a mess.

"Sakura-chan!" His smile was a little uncertain, as if he feared she'd yell at him.

"Um... hi."

Awkward silence.

Naruto gestured towards the door.

"Shouldn't we be going?"

She shook herself.

"Yes, of course."

She got up, nearly forgot her handbag that she'd put on the floor by her feet. She saw him glancing at the bathroom door once, debating whether or not to say goodbye. He must have decided not to because he made no attempt to go back.

Outside the sun had climbed even higher, but it was apparent that they still had some time. She had some vague sense that she should apologize for barging in like that but didn't know how to put it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know where you were and I figured-"

"I was gonna tell you I just didn't find the right moment-"

They both started and stopped at the same time. Naruto laughed a little, sighed, bought himself some time.

"Well, I guess this saves me the trouble of telling you."

She smiled, rolled her eyes at him, at his slight blush, at the entire thing.

"Whatever. Let's just get this to Sai."

They located him at the gates, drawing something abstract as usual.

"Yo, Sai!" Naruto smiled.

"Hello d- Naruto."

"You were going to say dickless, weren't you?"

She knew she had better stop this before it got out of hand.

"Sai! You might not remember it but today it's been five years since you first joined team seven!"

"Oh, is that so?" He smiled a, for him, broad smile.

"We bought a gift for you, it's nothing big but I hope you'll like it."

She reached out a flat box, carefully wrapped, with both hands and he graciously took it.

"Thank you very much," he said, rather stiffly. He probably wasn't used to getting gifts.

"Oh, Kakashi's up, I should..." Narutos voice trailed off, his gaze fixated in the distance. A moment later he pulled himself together, looked back at Sai.

"I hope the mission goes smoothly." It was considered bad juju to wish someone good luck before going on a mission. "Also... I'm glad you ended up on our team."

Sai was speechless, but his thin lips was pulled back just a little in a smile that was meant to be hidden but yet managed to escape.

"See ya."

"Sure, see you."

They both watched as he walked while trying not to hurry, making him look utterly ridiculous. Kakashi didn't seem to mind as he met him with an outstretched hand and she watched as he took it. Despite his back being turned on them she knew he was smiling, could see it in the very air around him.

"Did you know that he and Kakashi, er..."

Sai nodded, without taking his eyes off the painting, making little dots in a pattern that was lost for her.

"Yes, for a while now."

"You did?" Sakura was surprised, she hadn't expected Sai to find out before her, of all people.

"Yes, ever since Kakashi-senpai showed up at a meeting with a limp, by the looks of it he'd pulled a muscle in his gr-"

Sakura practically slammed her hands across her ears. Nope.

Sai continued, "The others teased him quite a bit about it since they knew that Naruto had gotten back from his mission the day before. It seemed to be the most reasonable explanation."

"Okay, can we change the subject?"

Sai didn't offer up anything new to talk about and Sakura was caught up in her own thoughts for a while until she came to a mental conclusion.

They seemed happy and in her mind that settled it.

Most unpredictable ninja, huh?

Well that much was true.


End file.
